1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of mechanical attachments to vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for providing a mechanical attachment in the form of a retractable carrier-platform device. More particular yet, the present invention involves a retractable carrier-platform device, where the carrier-platform device is attached to the front-end or the rear-end of the vehicle via standard plow-receiving couplings or customized couplings.
2. Description of Prior Art
Vehicles such as trucks and similar utility-vehicles are commonly used to transport smaller vehicles and mechanisms. Such smaller mechanisms include small tractors, lawn mowers, three-wheeled or four-wheeled all-terrain-vehicles (ATV's), motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles, snowblowers, and other similar items. In general, these items are loaded onto a flatbed or fixed-platform by physically lifting the item thereupon. Alternatively, the utility-vehicle is driven to a steep hillside such that the flatbed or platform abuts the hillside. In this way, the item to be transported may be wheeled thereupon. During either of these loading methods, significant effort must be expended by those individuals performing the loading. More often than not, several people must be involved in this loading process. In either the lifting method or hillside method, there exists a very real danger of loss of control over the item being loaded resulting in the item being lifted either dropping or overturning on the slope. Indeed, there are numerous injuries each year due to such occurrences. Accordingly, platforms attachable to the utility-vehicle near ground-level have been made available, to a limited extent, as a means to reduce lifting obligations associated with the item being transported.
In the field of utility-vehicle platforms, there have been several attempts to provide load-carrying platforms. In general, because of the limited features and fixed nature of such platforms, these efforts have failed to fully resolve the abovementioned problems. Some attempts have even been so complex in design so that they offset any benefits otherwise offered. Indeed, the time and effort involved in using complex and inefficient platform devices is self-defeating. In an attempt at simplification, some prior-art devices have turned to utilizing front-end snow-plow-receiving brackets to mount a platform. However, such prior-art platforms typically still require substantial manual lifting.
One prior-art carrier device is that of Dechant (U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,814), and involves an equipment-carrier assembly mounted to a snowplow-mounting bracket. Although the device of Dechant provides a platform for carrying items, it is limited to those small items such as toolboxes and the like that can be lifted directly into tray sections of the platform. Items of any greater size, in particular rider mowers and the like, are therefore unable to be transported by the device of Dechant.
Other prior-art carrier devices that exist are deficient for the same reasons as is the Dechant device. A general defect of prior-art carrier devices is that they are limited to a platform which cannot carry large items nor enable easy loading. Similar deficient prior-art carrier devices are disclosed by Gittins (GB #2,170,460) and Monckmeier (U.S. Pat. No. 1,977,735). The device of Gittins includes a carrier device in the form of a front-bumper-mounted box that is coupled to a vehicle. The device of Monckmeier is a carrier device that is also bumper-mounted, though limited further in that it is only a platform upon which luggage or trunks may be lashed down.
Concurrent with the development of the prior-art carrier devices described above, other front-end load-carrying devices have been developed with the goal of enabling heavier loads to be placed thereupon. Typically, such prior-art devices are formed by a platform that swings down to a fixed horizontal position in the manner of a common tail-gate. Two representative prior-art devices are those of Ritter et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,910) and Mascotte et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,760).
Ritter et al. includes a load-carrying platform that attaches to vehicles having a front-mounted or rear-mounted plow frame. The device of Ritter et al. exhibits several flaws, including, most importantly, the requirement that the item to be loaded thereupon must be lifted or moved onto the platform through the "hillside method" described above. Further, support chains that must be used form an obstruction that limits what may be placed on the Ritter et al. device. Similarly, the device of Mascotte et al. includes a swing-down platform that is bolted into a horizontal position and functions identically to the device of Ritter et al. though without the need of support chains. It should be noted that neither the device of Ritter et al. nor the device of Mascotte et al. resolves the onerous requirement that the item to be transported must be lifted onto the platform. As well, the "hillside method" is not avoided through the use of either of these prior-art devices. Therefore, each suffers from the persistent deficiencies seen throughout the prior art.
Accordingly, the prior art fails to provide any carrying device mountable on a vehicle that can be safely and quickly loaded with items so as to transport such items. Indeed, none of the prior art devices include a ramp for directly driving or otherwise moving such items thereupon. Therefore, what is needed is a carrier-platform device that is easily attached to a vehicle. What is also needed is such a device that is simply and easily deployable from a stowed position to a deployed and extendable position. Further, what is needed is such a device that ensures safe and fast loading and unloading of heavy items with minimal physical effort.